Strabane lottery winner will use money to improve her hometown

A lottery winner from Co Tyrone will use almost all of her £27million windfall to improve her home town.

Strabane woman Margaret Loughrey said she has already given away £13.5m of the EuroMillions prize she netted from a lucky dip ticket.

Ms Loughrey – who has vowed to keep only £1m for herself – was unemployed and living on benefits of just £58 a week when she won the cash last December.

Her improvement plans for the much-maligned border town include a museum highlighting the north west’s industrial heritage, football pitches for public use and a bowling alley.

“As soon as I won the money I said it would go for the good of the town,” she told a Sunday newspaper.

“I’ve already given half of it away. I always said one for me, and the rest for the town.”

The benevolent Ms Loughrey was sectioned under the Mental Health Act against her will in March. Speaking at the time, she said she was left feeling “hurt and distressed” by the decision and denied she was a danger to herself as claimed.